Churches keep promise to dying man to remodel house for Oroville widow

OROVILLE — When Jerry and Sylvia McNutt bought a house in Oroville three years ago, he planned to turn it into her dream home.

They didn't know he wouldn't live to see it through.

Just before Jerry McNutt's death in 2010, an Oroville minister promised to finish the house for Sylvia. The promise was kept and she moved in last December.

Over the last 21Ú2 years, members of Jordan Crossing Ministries, Building Bridges of Friendship, Oroville Church of the Nazarene and others fixed up the house and made it like new.

For Sylvia, 65, the journey to that point was hard at times, but it also led to a deepening faith.

"When I sat in here for the first time in December, I thought, 'I'm living a blessing'," said Sylvia on Friday during a tour of the newly remodeled home and the 1.86 acres it sits upon. "God has a plan, and we don't always understand his ways."

Her story began long before the McNutts found the hilltop house on Oro Garden Ranch Road and fell in love with it.

Both divorced, the two met several years ago at a bar and hit it off right away. At the time, Sylvia said she "didn't have Jesus" in her life.

They lived together for a while, but then Jerry was arrested "for running from the law" and went to prison for three years in Susanville.

Sylvia, a registered nurse, moved there, got a job, and visited every Saturday and Sunday.

After Jerry's release from prison, the two married and they gave their lives over to the Lord.

Jerry, who was a carpenter and had a knack with computers and other things, went to Bible College for two years, graduated, and started his own church.

By then, they lived in a cabin on 93 acres in Nevada City.

"We grew in the Lord, lived life, and it was beautiful," Sylvia said.

One day, Jerry visited Oroville with a friend from Jordan Crossing Ministries. On his return home, he was so enthusiastic about the area, the couple commuted twice a week to attend Jordan Crossing and to do outreach.

After two years, God started talking to them about moving to Oroville, and Jerry insisted they had to buy a house, Sylvia said.

"We had no credit, no money," she added.

Still, Jordan Crossing Pastor Mike Tomlinson took them up to the house on Oro Garden Ranch Road, which was vacant.

"It was a stinking, rotten mess, but we could always see beyond those things," she said. "It was a diamond in the rough."

Eventually the McNutts were able to work out a private-party sale. Jerry was going to do the work to fix up the house and property with the help of church members.

Jerry began getting sick. He had been diagnosed with Hepatitis C 15 years ago, but Sylvia said he had been fine, and he never complained. By the time they purchased the property, he was starting to go into liver failure.

One day when they were still in Nevada City, he called Sylvia home from work with severe pain in his leg. They went to an emergency room in Grass Valley, where he was diagnosed with necrotizing fascitis and transferred to UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento.

Jerry was in intensive care for three weeks, Sylvia said. He had six surgeries and one medical emergency after another. Finally doctors and family decided to take him off all machines except an intravenous pump with a morphine drip to keep him comfortable.

He died two days later, June 30, 2010, at the age of 56.

Moving to Oroville was placed on hold while Sylvia dealt with the shock and loss. That began to change in November, when it snowed in Nevada City for three days and it took her eight hours just to dig herself a path to get to her car.

Sylvia was finally able drive to where she could call Tomlinson for help, which he did. Over the next two weeks, Sylvia packed and moved to Oroville.

"It's like God shut the door there," she said. "I tell people it was my trial by snow."

Shortly before Jerry died, Tomlinson visited him at the hospital and told him to "go on home," promising to finish fixing the house for Sylvia.

For the next two years, she stayed with a friend in Oroville. Meanwhile, the churches went to work, aided by donations, including $5,000 from Home Depot.

The work was extensive, and the house had to be stripped to the studs, Sylvia said.

"The house should have been leveled, it was that bad," she said.

Now she has new floors, windows, cabinets, stone work in the bathroom, fixtures and paint. One room is still unfinished.

It hasn't always been easy.

"I've learned humility and patience, and the people in Oroville have been so generous," she said.

When it gets too hard or she feels lonely, Sylvia goes to the Lord with thanksgiving and praise. He sustains her, she said.

"When you start to praise God, it takes away the pain," she continued.

There is still work to be done. She needs a swamp cooler, fencing, some coverings outside, and she is having some issues with water. She also hopes to get chickens and goats.

It will all take time because Sylvia works full time at Olive Ridge Acute Care facility.

To some of the people at Jordan Crossing who helped with the house, it has been a great experience.

Ministry leader James Bond said he felt blessed to be able help McNutt and to be part of helping to keep the promise Tomlinson made to Jerry.

"It felt good to give back to somebody that was in so much need," he said.

To Braxton Jackson, it was also good to see how the community came through for the widow.

"God bless her, it was her dream to do this home," Jackson said. "She's a really nice lady. It just warms my heart that so many people would pull together and do this."

Reach Barbara Arrigoni at 533-3136, barrigoni@orovillemr.com, or on Twitter @OMRBarbara.